The Arts and Crafts Kitchen

Imagine a big country house in the pretty village of Chislehurst, a row of independent shops and cafes, tree lined streets and winding country roads. Just a stone's throw on the train to London, yet the perfect spot to set up home - a home for the long term.

This beautiful Arts and Crafts house, built in 1887, was very impressive; high ceilings, beautiful big spacious rooms full of light and original wood panelling. The owners decided on this new spot for the kitchen and it was like walking into a very cool restaurant or old school dining hall. Big double doors and leather club chairs for relaxing in the sun, a skinny long refectory table with an assortment of old school chairs and benches looked just the part. A bank of four of our pantry cupboards sat against the back wall. These are big deep cupboards, housing a full height fridge and freezer and two pantries; yet in this kitchen they were quietly understated and perfectly proportioned.

The styling in this room was centred around a beautifully renovated parquet floor; the warm colour of the woods on the floor, table and island all gave a lovely tactile feel to this kitchen. Hardwearing, light coloured Silestone worktops around the sink and cooker contrasted really well with the wood and gave the room a little touch of industrial to go with the selection of vintage lights hanging from the ceiling on chains which must have been close to 5 metres long. The ceilings were very high and, just to add to the atmosphere, there was an original minstrels' gallery at one end of the room that gave a magnificent view of this very special kitchen. The stylish combination of our Pantry Blue base cabinets, glazed London wall cupboards and island made up of standard Shaker cupboards meant that this kitchen was an instant hit, racking up more Instagram likes in 24 hours than any other deVOL Kitchen ever.

The family who lived here had chosen a wonderful mix of old and new accessories to make this room come to life and the addition of a big plasma TV on the wall and the constant sound of Ibiza chill out tunes made it a place you really didn't want to leave. We love this room for its complete look and the care that has been taken to make it fit so well into this grand house, what a fabulous room to come home to.

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